Remembering Shirley

On Wednesday, October 7, Shirley Conrad Heim lost her long, hard-fought battle against cancer. Shirley’s passing is a devastating loss for the Stafford Rotary and for our entire Rotary district.

Shirley was born in Ottoman, Virginia in Lancaster County. She was proud of her roots in the Northern Neck and never lost that very special accent. After serving as valedictorian of her 1954 high school class she attended Mary Washington College, then later received her Master's degree from the University of Virginia.

Her long career in public education, as a classroom teacher and as an administrator, was marked by a number of significant firsts:

·         As Stafford Head Start director, Shirley turned a troubled program into an award winner within 10 months. She served as a master teacher for effective instructional techniques for disadvantaged children.

·         Stafford's first public kindergarten was started during her tenure.

·         She served as founder and the first director of the Governor’s School for the Gifted at Mary Washington College, now a statewide program, nationally validated.

·         She began Stafford’s Strings program

In 1985 Shirley was appointed Stafford County Assistant Superintendant of Finance and Technology. She served briefly as interim superintendant of schools until her retirement in 2003.

In addition to her extensive work with Rotary Shirley served on nine boards and committees, including the Moss Free Clinic, the Stafford Education Foundation, and Olde Forge Junction Inc. She organized a Stafford Schools Museum that tells the story of the growth of the school system.

Shirley’s love of music and dance led her to found an Appalachian dance team called the Good Time Cloggers. This dance team toured internationally and brought “good times” to dancers and audience. Shirley danced as long as her health allowed.

In September, 2008 Stafford County’s newest school, the Shirley C. Heim Middle School opened. The official dedication of the school in May, 2009 was a wonderful celebration that Shirley was feeling well enough to fully enjoy.

Rotary Career

Shirley joined Stafford Rotary in 1995 and immediately became interested in Rotary’s many programs for youth. Her first endeavors were the establishment of Interact clubs at the then three high schools in Stafford County; North Stafford High, Stafford Senior High and Brook Point High. When Colonial Forge High School opened Shirley was getting the Interact club organized there as soon as the students arrived. Interact clubs at the Oberle School and Mountain View High School followed.

Shirley was also very committed to Rotaract. She established the Rotaract club at the University of Mary Washington and was working on establishing a club at Germanna Community College at the time of her death. The Rotaract club has been extremely active in community service. Shirley organized volunteers to recruit Rotaractors and to help the club with their projects, especially the wonderfully popular Senior Citizens Ball. Shirley and her crew of volunteers made sure that the Rotaractors all received “care packages” of treats during exam weeks.

Shirley began working on the district level during Graham Green’s year as district governor, 1998-1999. DG Graham’s goal was that every club in District7610 should sponsor at least one Interact club. While that goal has not been reached Shirley traveled the length and breadth of this district meeting with local Rotary clubs and school administrators establishing new Interact clubs, reactivating clubs that had faded, and encouraging Interactors by helping the students with their projects.

Shirley had a gift for writing grant proposals that was helpful in developing community service projects for the Stafford Club and for all three clubs in our area using district designated funds. She also successfully received grants from local businesses and

Shirley was the force behind so many projects and programs for our area Rotary clubs and the district that’s it’s hard to remember them all. Here are some of them:

·         The Festival of Trees, the major fundraiser for Hope House. Each year Shirley thought of wonderful themes for our club’s tree and helped each Interact club and the UMW Rotaract club develops their own theme trees.

·         Relay for Life – Shirley organized our club’s team for this annual American Cancer Society fund raiser, as well as teams from the Interact Clubs.

·         Salvation Army Book Buddies program. Shirley collected hundreds of books each Christmas for this program to give new books to needy children.

·         Toys for Tots. Every year Shirley organized volunteers to help the Marines with this project. She was also able to convince local restaurants to provide lunches for the Marines each day they were working on the toy collection.

·         The District Speech Contest and the District Essay Contest were projects Shirley enthusiastically embraced each year, encouraging students to apply and Rotarians to volunteer to run the events.

·         RYLA – Shirley felt very strongly that every club should send students to Camp RYLA each year and that Rotarians should volunteer their time and skills to make the camp a success.

·         McLean’s Books for India project gave Shirley an opportunity to collect massive numbers of books and organize Rotarians to transport them to McLean for shipment to India.

·         Help for a refugee family from Africa. Shirley saw the need for these families brought to Stafford by Catholic Charities and organized furniture, jobs, food, transportation, language lessons and frequent visits to give the family lessons on managing everyday life in America. It was an enormous undertaking that really taxed her strength as her health failed, but she was determined to help them be successful.

·         Playgrounds. After she successfully built one with a simplified grant Shirley worked to get playground equipment for Hope House and Olde Forge Junction. She recruited Marines from USMCB Quantico to help with the heavy work on these projects, and they enjoyed the chance to work with her.

·         Afterschool program for children from Olde Forge Junction. Shirley helped obtain a van to pick up children and take them to this program.  

Shirley Heim's motto was "Don't think why you can't--think how you can." We Stafford Rotarians must hold this motto in our hearts and find ways to continue and expand on Shirley’s important work for our community. At her memorial service we were reminded that Shirley was never shy about asking people to volunteer and never shy about asking for money. Until the last seven weeks of her illness I would receive three or four emails each week with “marching orders” from Shirley. We’ll have to give ourselves marching orders now and keep Shirley’s work moving forward.